The Labor enquirer., 1887-01-01
His Belief as Announced byl
Himself in d Public
Lecture. |
The Would!Be Monopolist Of Old
Had to be an Expert
With a Club. \.
What is Seen by One Who Knows
History and Reads the Signs
Of the Times.


At a regular meeting of the Labor Il
brary club Of New York CITY, Decembe
7, 1885, John A. Henry Of Chicago,
member of the American group Of An
archists. opened the discussion of th,
evening. Speaking first to those in at
tendance, he said: II expect to Say
some things that you will notlike. III
man is man he has an opinion, and th,
right kind of man will always find !
way to express his thoughts. I wan,
you, therefore, to combat vigorously
what shall say, If you disagree to it
for we must get at the truth, and there
is no other way than free discussion
Examine my argument and expose fal
lacies If you find them, and invite yor
to handle it without gloves" Then ad
dressing the chairman (Mrs. Leonard,
he spoke as follows:
Anyone who knows anything about
history must be aware that it is only 4
record of the worlds progress. and pro
gress is the movement of actual things
The history of man is the history of the
world; for man is the highest. he is the
manager and arrangeS of everything
around him, and the'whole world is his
field of action. He gets his inspiration
from thenature beneath his feet. Ifyou
want to know how the world has been
moving in all time past, you have only to
study the minds and habits of people in
that same time, ami progress is epitom-
lied in the difference that Is found IN
them. 81.
Take cave-dweller of prehistoric
times; study him by the light you find
in the weapons and the skeleton bones
that remain in the place whore he lived
ages ago, and you can get good idea of
how the world was then how much Of it
the cave.dweller used and how 1t looked
to the small mind he had. Take man
who lives to-day, and without any other
means Of information you can examine
him, Investigate his mind and his
clothes and his habits Of life, and judge
to a certainty what the world is, and
how much,it differs from the condition
of things tlat surrounded the fellow
whose house was hole in the ground,
whose clothing was an animals skin or
the bark Of a tree, and whose language
was only sounds without any alphabet
or any method of words. The man Of
/. the cave didn't know much Of possiblli-
ties; we know almost everything, He
couldn't think beyond the range of his
eyesight but we are almost without q
limit, and need not depend upon eye
sight at all. He is only weed, but We
are cultivated into the Towering stage.
We are so much finer that there is no
need Of comparison, except to say that
between him and us there lies million
years Of continual grow tn.
And growth is ALWAYS toward light
and freedom-never the other way. 1t
the law of the universe. Ii man came
out of the ground, as no one will dis
pute, and his advance is outward and
away from earth, 1t is not for us to say
that like the last rose OF summer he
shall die on the stem-that heshall per
ish only to be renewed. Though such a
process be the actual method with him,
as all of us can plainly see, there is con-
tinual progress made, and we have no
right to declare that it shall ever stop.
We never 20 over the same road Sec
ond time; and thoug b all nature moves
by pulsation--by procession and reces-
sion, taking two steps forward and one
step backward-yet time is always left
behind at the end Of the day, and
neither ourselves nor anybody else shall
ever put foot in the tracks that once
were made. Nothing goes backwards
1t is the knowledge Of this fact that en-
lightens the first step in the Anarchistic
argument.
take no account Of any other world
than this, and when l spoke of rose
diving on the stem was not thinking OF
soul.life. do not believe that have q
soul, or that anyone else has one. |
don't want it. can get along pretty
we'll without it If l have free use OF the
other good things that see. And even
If have one and should find 1t out at
last, taink it will be all the better soul
for having been properly fed and
clothed. The Christian soul is profes-
sional pauper always in the sImshouse
of thought, or exposing its shriveled
misery before the world and calling at
tention to the spiritual 'thinness OF its
bones.
When it is thoroughly understood
that all the universe is in process OF
growth that never stops, ana We cannon
see the end of it, but only know tnas Tue
mora wa advance the better isethe light
and the broader is the path. the next
question that naturally comes up is'
whv can't we get along easy? If the
road Is getting wider, whv oon's We
have more elbow roomf Ii snoo'o
have to explain TO you the reason "
this cramping, 1t would be proof that
YOU have not 90 good vision as the
cave.dweller ofthe infant world. "nen
e.